Father's Day for Peace

For too long we men have used violence and war to settle our scores, leading to more violence and war.  We look away while bombs dropped in our names kill the children of fellow fathers and mothers in far away places, increasing the odds that our own children will one day be the victim of revenge attacks.

Imagine just for a moment how you would feel and what you would do if your own children were the “collateral damage.”  After all, the mothers and fathers of the world love our children and grieve their deaths in equal proportion.  We may shield our eyes, but if you listen you can hear the anguished cries.

In the wake of the Civil War, Julia Ward Howe called on the women of the world to unite against war, saying in her 1870 Mother’s Day Proclamation: “We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”

But the men didn’t listen. Instead, our gender has led the charge in a parade of brutal wars, killing millions upon millions of beloved sons and daughters in every corner of the planet. Just last month, 65 children were killed in one strike in Afghanistan by U.S. bombs, according to a report by the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission. Children in Pakistan live in constant fear of being the next victim of an unmanned U.S. drone.

Enough. It’s time to put an end to war for the sake of our children, for the sake of all children.  The Mothers of the world have been ready to move beyond war as a means of resolving conflict for a long time.  It’s time for Fathers to hear the call and to do our part.

The term warrior has two definitions. The first is "a person engaged or experienced in warfare." The second is "a person who shows or has shown great vigor, courage..”

It’s time for Fathers to stand up with courage and vigor to the war-makers and demand that no more children are bombed in our name in Afghanistan or anyplace else.  Let us vow to do unto the children of other fathers and mothers as we would have done unto ours. Let’s drop books and bread instead of bombs, and use the money saved to restore the planet that is the common inheritance of our children while we’re at it.

Jimi Hendrix once said, “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the people shall know peace.”  We have that power, Dads, in the love we collectively feel for our children.  Let’s make Father’s Day a day to begin realizing the full power of that love. Our children are counting on us.  

Mother's Peace Day

More than 40 years before Anna Jarvis established Mother’s Day to honor individual mothers (before later campaigning against the commercialization of the Holiday), Julia Ward Howe organized Mothers’ Peace Days around the country in the wake of the Civil War. Howe, best know as author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, urged women throughout the world to join together to oppose war in her Mother’s Day Proclamation of 1870:

“Arise, all women who have hearts! Whether your baptism be of water or of tears! Say Firmly: Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

As bombs and bullets continue to kill and maim sons and daughters in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Gaza and beyond, Howe’s plea is as relevant as it was 139 years ago. Just this week, U.S. bombs allegedly killed more than 100 civilians in one strike in Afghanistan, including scores of women and children who had sought shelter in houses and orchards.

Howe’s insight was that which unites us is stronger than that which divides us. After all, the mothers and fathers of the world love their children in equal proportion. A mother whose son or daughter is killed by a bomb in a small Afghanistan village grieves as deeply as a mother in the U.S. would if circumstances were reversed.

Precious few mother or fathers can imagine a justification for their own child being killed in the pursuit of a supposed political or military objective. Yet we too often turn a blind eye at reports of our tax-funded high tech weapons killing the children of others or rationalize it as an unfortunate consequence of “keeping us safe.” As if our children being bombed would not increase the likelihood of revenge attacks, making the attackers (and their children) less safe.

Following the recent Afghanistan bombardment, a throng of angry protesters chanted "Death to America". What would they have been chanting if instead of bombs, we had dropped books and bread?

So when, as Pete Seeger has asked in song for decades, will we ever learn? Another musician, Jimi Hendrix, had an answer: “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the people shall know peace.”

If there exists love powerful enough to overcome the love of power with its violent implications, it is contained in the collective love of all the world’s mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers. The potential to realize the full power of this love lies in connecting the feelings and concern we have for our own children to the feelings and concerns of every other parent and grandparent. We can take a step in this direction by insisting that no more mothers and children are bombed in our name in Afghanistan or anyplace else.

Were we to join in common cause, doing to the children of others as we’d have done unto ours – and demanding that our governments do the same -- the world would necessarily shift from war and violence toward peace and compassion. May this Mothers’ Day be fresh inspiration to renew this journey.

Dreams for Our Children

Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed in 1968, 40 years ago this coming year. As many have said, his dreams did not die in Memphis. I have a recurring dream of my own, that all children around the world will grow up to know each others as friends to meet, not enemies to fear. My dream is that all the money currently spent sending our sons and daughters off to fight the sons and daughters of other parents will instead be used to heal the planet and all of its inhabitants. When we come to see each other as one human family with a shared fate on our fragile, imperiled Earth, this will be the obvious choice. Until then, we've got some work to do!!

What are your dreams for your child, or for all children?

Dear President

Michael Franti asked fans to submit "Dear President" letters, to be read at his February, 2007 Presidents Day shows in San Francisco and Lake Tahoe. 3 letters were chosen to be read at each of 3 shows. Mine was selected, so I read the letter below to a couple of thousand people at the Tahoe show.


Dear President Bush,

I just sang my precious Rosie to sleep. Hush little baby. Somewhere in Baghdad, a daddy is sobbing in the street, holding his heart in his hand. She was walking into school when the car exploded.

How many deaths will it take til you know that too many children have died?

I heard you on the radio the other day talking about creating a culture of life. Without a hint of irony. If Iraq is a culture of life in action, I’d hate to see what you mean by a culture of death.

When you were running for President you said your favorite philosopher was Jesus. Did you read where he said love your enemies? I don’t recall love being amended with bomb and torture.

Love is what we need, Mr. President.

How many enemies would we have if instead of spending $650 billion more on weapons and war, we spent that much to provide healthy food, clean water, medicine and health care to every member of the human family who is sick, suffering or in need?

How many enemies would we have then?

What if we really were promoting a culture of life as a superpower for the good of all, a superpower for peace, love and healing on the planet?

How many enemies would we have then? Would we need to study war anymore?

Love is what we need, Mr. President. Not invasions and occupations masquerading as liberation. Not new military bases in the sand and inflated defense contracts. Not fear stoked by phony code orange proclamations. Not wars against fictitious weapons of mass destruction masked by weapons of mass deception. Love is what we need.

Mr. President, as I lay my baby down to sleep, I prayed her soul be hers to keep, that no children should die from violence before they wake. I prayed that when this nightmare ends, she will see children in every country not as enemies but as friends.

Hush little babies, don’t say a word. Your families are going to leave you a better world.

And hush Mr. President, you’ve tipped the world over, but time is short for you and Karl Rover.

Do the right thing!

Peace,
John

Caucus for Our Children

This piece was published today (Dec. 19) in the Iowa City Press Citizen, my hometown newspaper! Check out their endorsement of Barack too....


I returned to my home state of Iowa in 2003 to work on the Presidential campaign of a pro-peace candidate, hoping to help send a message to the country and the world that we the people didn’t support the tragic, unnecessary war against Iraq.

While that message was muddied by the fact that the 2004 caucus winners voted for the Iraq War, it was clear that most caucus-going Iowa Democrats strongly opposed the war even then. Two years later, the rest of the country caught up and booted war-backing incumbents from Congress.

During this caucus season, my life is a little bit different. Now, instead of finding precinct captains and staffing candidate debates, I’m searching for decent diapers and play dates for my daughter Rosie!

The birth and life of a child is a transformative experience, an indescribable joy. It is a feeling of deep love shared by parents everywhere, whether in California or Iowa, Iraq or Afghanistan. So when I read the news now, I imagine the horror and anguish as bombs, guns and explosives brutally kill and maim children and their families day after day.

During the height of the Vietnam War, Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote his final book titled, “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?” It is a question as relevant today as it was then. Unless we change course, our children will inherit wars with no end in sight, buried in debt, imperiled by global climate change and a tattered social safety net.

We will only change our priorities and direction as a country when citizens take the lead. The people demanded an end to slavery, that women be given the right to vote, civil rights for all and an end to the Vietnam War. Still, it matters who occupies the Oval Office. When millions of people around the world took to the streets to oppose the Iraq war before it started, it would have helped to have a President who listened to what the people were saying.

I relish the idea of Rosie growing up with a woman President. What an empowering example for a little girl. Yet it would be even more profound to have a President who best honors the wisdom and values of women. After all, one objective of the women’s movement has been to transform society by evolving from a system of dominance, violence, and war to one rooted in cooperation, dialogue, and peace-making.

Among the leading Democratic Presidential candidates, it is not the woman in the race who has best embodied those values. It is not Hillary Clinton who had the moral courage and sound judgment to oppose the Iraq War before it started. It is not Hillary Clinton who pledged to use diplomacy first by talking with all nations, friend and foe alike, including Iran. It is Senator Barack Obama.

After the death, destruction and division perpetrated by the Bush Administration and those who support their agenda, we urgently need a President capable of uniting Americans across the political spectrum to begin the process of restoration and renewal.

In a speech on his foreign policy, Senator Obama said, “I'm running for the presidency of the United States of America so that together we can do the hard work to seek a new dawn of peace and prosperity for our children, and for the children of the world.”

That gives this father hope and inspiration. Imagine the message you and other Iowans can send to the world on January 3rd by caucusing for a man of peace to replace the men of war, at last.